To many, Richard Briers is the Monarch of the Glen – a cantankerous but lovable relic of Scotland’s past.
He and the cast of the BBC series – including Downton Abbey and Gosford Park creator Julian Fellowes – have become synonymous with the work of Scots writer Compton Mackenzie.
The series did, however, play fast and loose with his Highland Novel – transporting his cast into the present from their 1930s setting.
A “true and faithful” version is now being brought to life by celebrated playwright Peter Arnott, whose recent works, including The Cone Gatherers and The silver Darlings will be familiar to Perthshire audiences.
It will be the autumn production at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, whose artistic director John Durnin is hugely excited by the prospect.
The show will invite audiences to join American millionaire Chester Royde, his new bride, Carrie, and his sister, Myrtle, as they travel to the Highlands to explore Carrie’s Scottish ancestry.
While the Roydes are very much creatures of the 20th century, their hosts still cling to the old ways: Donald MacDonald of Ben Nevis, the 23rd clan chieftain and Laird of Glenbogle Castle, is fiercely protective of his way of life, the land that he loves and the Macdonald spirit.
John said: “I think this is going to be rather special.
“Our regular audiences at the theatre will remember that way back in 2009 we produced the musical version of Whisky Galore, possibly Compton Mackenzie’s most famous story.
“Monarch of the Glen was the very first of his Highland Novels and is only really familiar to most people, bizarrely, not through the original novel but through the BBC television series of the 2000s.
“It actually took some elements of the story, removed them from the 1930s and plonked them down in the present day and as a result I suspect that audiences aren’t very familiar with Mackenzie’s original story.
“What we are going to be doing is to be absolutely true and faithful to Mackenzie’s story.
“It is about this wonderful three way collision of cultures between one of the last of the Highland lairds, who still clings on desperately to the old values of the clan system, the rise of the new nationalist movement in Scotland, which led to the creation of the SNP and the continuing friction between Scotland and England.”
The show is expected to open in October.
